gaming

It’s no secret that me and Shaun love GTA its been nearly 3 years since its launch and we’re still playing it the frequent updates have kept us interested and engaged. Rockstar has not failed us but…. Continue reading →

Pretty much a year ago and a bit I was loading up Grand Theft Auto V onto my PS3 because that’s what you do when the latest and greatest game series is released… on the PS3 and Xbox 360 only. So basically I was downgrading controllability from my previous super-fun experience on PC with GTAIV and going to the archaic PS3 with it’s 10 year old hardware and… well it has a Blu-Ray player so that’s pretty good.

I haven’t posted as usual, Friday around midday. The reason for that is GTA V the game I have been waxing lyrical for the last 2 months. The game that makes me write about other games to write about GTA. This is borderline obsession but how can you not be worked up about “the next GTA” on the demonising or praising sides of the fence? I, thankfully love the game, I always have enjoyed and immersed myself into the offerings from Rockstar with the GTA titles. GTA V has not disappointed me one bit due to the vast, vibrant setting and interesting characters to boot, you feel a part of the world they have sculpted so carefully with the technology pushed right to the limit, I cannot praise the level of detail and thought put into everything you can see and interact with.

What I am not going to do now is review the game because I am no super-gamer and I don’t finish games hyperfast and then go online to write up the awesome guides and tips. What I do is take the experience in reasonable sized pieces with gaming sessions around 4 hours long, even then I don’t get through that fast so for me it’s all about taking it in (as I write I am at around 47%). And because I am taking it in I hope I can give you some info on the different way things work for someone as “relaxed” as I am with the pace (No pictures this week, I don’t know how to snap photos on PS3):

Driving/Cars/Motorcycles
I love cars, everyone who knows me knows I don’t like cars, I love cars, just not in some sicko sexual way, I like to drive and think and talk about cars, my name is Shaun and am a petrolhead (Hi Shaun). GTA V is car lovers heaven, high end sports cars, off-road pickups, modern and classic US muscle cars, sleek convertibles and all others because most of it is cool… are represented here. For the first time the vehicular line up is extensive with multiple models from manufacturers (moreso than GTA IV) but also the detail and the diversity on the streets of Los Santos is astounding. I am nearly halfway through the game and I am seeing some cars for the first time in the game. The first foray you would have gotten/get is in the Obey 9F (an Audi R8 amalgam) did what GTA IV did when I first tried it out… it sucked. Why, well it was far too twitchy and turned unnaturally quickly, in the amount of control it had as a handler it was out of control and I disliked it. Since then I have had the chance to drive nearly everything else and I love it. The feeling is definitely like a Need For Speed or Burnout with easy handling and fun easy dodging, however making you work a little to get the drift happening right. So far the highlights of my offline garage is the Vapid Sandking XL (Ford Raptor on roids), Inverto Coquette (Red, carbon bits, looks like 2014 Corvette), Bravado Buffalo (2013 Dodge Charger, Franklin’s default car) and an Imponte Phoenix (70s Pontiac Firebird, Custom for Trevor).

I am rambling but you should know:
– Cars are modifiable, if you modify your default car (for Michael, Trevor or Franklin) the car will always be modified. Find a Los Santos garage and drive/ride in.
– Things you can modify on your car: Suspension (Lows), Armour, Braking, Performance (Turbo, Engine, Exhaust, ECU), Body (Bumpers/Splitters/Diffusers, Spoilers, Wheels, Tyre Smoke, Tint, Colour, Roof, Roll Cage)
– Playing the game I notice adding a turbo seems to negate the need for engine or transmission modifications as the turbo maxxes the acceleration stats (is there any benefit to adding other stuff?)
– Rockstar seems to be on the pulse of car culture, their choice of wheels, cars and modifications shows it. They included wheels that look like Volks and SSRs… WOOHOO!
– Bikes are modifiable too, I love my Bagger (Harley Road King) in matte black.
– You can lose your car if you park it at your character’s home garage. So far Trevor’s parking lot at the strip club (kinda spoiler) doesn’t have this problem. I have lost approx 3 cars and 1 bike this way over all three characters. Luckily I wasn’t too fussed about the cars but that could get annoying if you bought something for a fair bit of change and then lost it. The most secure way to retain cars is by putting them in the large storage facility type garage.

On Foot
Walking around is not such a bad way to get around these days, with the sprawl of the city or the waves on the beach I can’t take in everything fast enough. Shooting and evading baddies and cops has improved somewhat. Aiming with the auto aim function is well executed and when you get shots on target in quick succession you feel like a badass. I haven’t started a triathlon yet but I am assuming I will have fun with the biking, running and swimming events.

Flying
This is the one part that falls down slightly. I remember getting in a chopper in GTA IV and loving the idea of getting around quickly and deadly like in the annihilator. I was the king of the sky until I hit something like a power pole or skyscraper. In GTA V the same excitement was had when I approached the helicopter, then on take off everything was fine until the turbulence from all the strongest winds around the world decided to hit me at once and from every direction. I get that flying isn’t an easy thing to do but the hipster living in Silver Lake, LA can’t drive for peanuts but I bet he’s having fun driving in Los Santos. I am not sure why R* decided to make driving better but flying worse. The same goes for planes where flying is a constant correction and adjustment exercise with what feels like constant turbulence. Are they trying to stop us from flying too much?

Money
We all like money, tricking co-workers into thinking they won the lottery is a low thing to do, it also reveals everyone needs money. The game really makes a big deal of making money and lots of it, items are sufficiently priced to drive the need for lots of cash. Making money in the first half of the game is sparse except for the first heist. I was stupid with this heist so I didn’t make much (no spoilers just make sure when the crap gunman drops the loot, ride over it to pick it up as Franklin). There is a great glitch where you can find an underwater case of money and immediately switch to another character and then switch back to collect again and again until you have enough to buy that house/business/car. Apparently you make a load of cash around 50% (nearly there!) so fear not, you can get everything you want eventually.

Stock Trading
i thought this deserved a section on it’s own because it’s very much like gambling except you can influence the outcome. I don’t profess to be some super trader dude so I rely on the tips everyone else has. You can influence the ups and downs of stock by just being destructive or through the assassination missions where if you get the intel before you start the mission you can get all 3 guys bought into a particular stock with a guaranteed profit after the assassination mission is over. Generally you are killing company execs, developers or jurors so you can see where this is going. I highly recommend you leave these to after you do the big union depository job as you can bet big and make a load more than I did by playing them and putting in all I had at the time (~$800K per character)

The Law
One leap I am happy with is the Police. They are more accurate with the gun and fast with the driving. This is usually a bad thing for the aspiring criminal however what they have also done is make line of sight realistic.
What I mean by this is best explained by comparison with GTA IV:
– Running up wanted stars is easy in GTA IV and GTA V – I was t-boned by a cop car in V as I pulled out and then immediately got 2 stars. IV would have let that go. Walking near to people setup in locations i.e. a picnic or around a camp tends to make them want to call the cops for no reason. Makes me stay away.
– Hiding in a carpark in IV would spell trouble if you were still in the “dragnet”, no matter how well you were out of the public’s view, the cops would turn up and surround you, choppers were near impossible. In V as long as you were one turn ahead and then out of sight down an alley cops would convert to “point of view cones” on the map and as long as you kept out of their “view” you were safe and then you would lose your wanted level after long enough.
– Swapping cars in IV did nothing to stop the chase, in V it dropped the amount of stars as long as you were out of sight.
– Police AI in IV was quite simple, in V they have your number and will work hard to get you and your friends

San Andreas: The town the country and the vibe
I truly enjoy the sprawl and lights, I have always wanted to visit LA and this is the closest thing to that so far. You watch the movies, the tv shows about LA and there is a made up vision of the city and what is there. R* captured the gritty monumentalism of New York for Liberty City and almost in a complete opposite they got sunshine and urban sprawl as well as outback country of Blaine County just right this time around. Downtown and then the dusty plains and undulations feel like completely separate parts of America. Once again I don’t know what real life LA is like but my word, LS feels authentic, glitzy glamour and dilapidated projects have never looked or felt so right together. Buildings are not simply copy pasted round the place, every building feels individually constructed to be unique, if you want some tips on architectural design then walk around Franklin’s Vinewood home on the hills. Roads are textured and varied, it all looks sunburnt and a cool feature is they even got the ripple strips along the side of the highways to make that noise you get from driving over them. Draw distance has also changed somewhat with nearly all of the surrounding city completely visible and defined even at distance, this turns up the realism from GTA IV’s draw distance although I will say in my first foray there was one or two instances of a whole building popping in from what would have been less than 50 metres away from the character.

Online
Can’t wait to try this out, the game has had some issues with the online system dropping out for hours at a time (BAWSAQ, Social Club) probably as R* is ramping up the GTAO servers and such, if the response to the start of GTAV is anything to go by they will most likely be beefing up their servers to contain the overwhelming demand for game servers when everyone, no doubt would have finished the story and be vying for the 500 missions with their own custom character.

If you are reading this then you, like me are waiting anxiously for the release of the much hyped, much loved game in the line of the one of the greatest most storied franchises in the history all thumbstick and keyboard history. In some ways it’s a chance at a vacation to LA except it’s Los Santos and people are going to be trying to kill me.

I will admit that there is some paranoia in my mind for tomorrow when the doors open and I am allowed to pick up my copy of GTA V. Why? Well I could get mugged, I’m not some muscle dude with a penchant for beat-em-ups IRL. I like puppies, small kittens and motorcycle accidents when I watch youtube, ASMR videos are also great, straight up violence is reserved purely for the virtual world.

But who cares about that stuff because what do we know about the game for sure?

– It’s set in Los Santos and the game map can fit Liberty City (GTA IV) as well as all of the map from GTA: SA
– 3 protagonists, 3 different points of view to get you grounded in all aspects, from glitz and glamour to the hoods to the stix, quickly and without using just the linear storyline to take you there.
– Modifiable cars – More than that you can purchase cars and own them, you can retrieve cars from the impound lot if lost (destroyed?).
– Customisable weapons – Guns are not lost after death which is handy
– The Almighty Dollar – Not just cars but homes and planes can be bought and stored, think Test Drive Unlimited with more freedom to do even more
– Mission Customisation – Not only can you plan and execute missions/heists according to your choice, you can play the characters you want to play during the mission. 3 different perspectives. What I am not entirely sure of is whether the perspectives can be forced, can I play just Michael during the whole mission?
– Better car physics – GTA IV wasn’t to everyone’s taste last time around, I for one did not mind it although I remember loading it up back in 2008 to find that I had no idea why cars were so weird to drive versus the lo-fi GTA: SA which was actually fun. Cars handle more arcade racer like for a better experience because driving is great and a part of GTA V but it’s not everything so why not make it fun?
– Side Missions – A lot of them, diving, hunting, racing (always), extreme sports, triathlons (returning from SA), bounty hunting the list is quite long.
– Television – GTA IV had some TV on the… TV (in game) but it was just a footnote. It seems that the player’s actions could be recorded to be played back in a television bulletin or a “Cops” style TV show. I was watching the TV spots on the GTA V website and I was blown away at the production quality and attention to detail that went into what would generally be a throw away side note, may now genuinely be a fantastic component of the game. Do crime, go home at the end of the day after being chased by the cops to review all the carnage and chaos on the news!
– Checkpoint mid-mission saves – So you don’t have to replay the whole mission again if you fail just like TBOGT
– Inside house can see outside house – Interiors are a big deal in GTA V with shop fronts and homes/apartments having an uninterrupted view of the outside, possibly (finally) even seamless transition.
– There is a car that looks like an Aston Martin DB5 – you can pretend to be James Bond in LA
– Animals make an appearance under the section of things that can you can hunt or be hunted by. Franklin has a dog which is great because COD Ghosts also has dogs and that is a big deal for the COD universe (lol).
– Missions are replayable – Fantastic, you now have 3 different perspectives and endless iterations of that to play again and again.
– Rockstar have almost deliberately setup the PS4 and XBox One launches to fail as everyone will still be playing GTA V and GTA Online and won’t be bothered with anything else.

Tonight on Los Santos’ Most Wanted

Things that are hinted but not confirmed:
– GTA Online hints at the possibility that San Fierro and Las Venturas might make a return in the “constantly expanding world” (fingers crossed!)
– You can change the clothing of the 3 protagonists however it doesn’t seem to be possible for the haircut as it might detract from the trademark look.
– GTA Online player characters seem to not have a voice hence “That was awkward”
– Seasons – Postcards on the official page appear to have landmarks in different seasons, could the game run through different seasons?
– Want to buy a house in a nice neighborhood? Cause a lot of destruction and chaos in the place where you want to buy and drive house prices down so you can buy on the cheap and then cause chaos in another neighborhood to take the heat off your county to let prices go back up again. Same goes for shares except cause destruction for the entities linked to the company i.e. securavans, airplanes, offices and branches.
– Grove St is back and bigger (Thanks to Carl) – Everyone is wearing green in Franklin’s intro video. Purple features too, so the Front Yard Ballas might also be making a return as Franklin’s enemies.

Ducati 1098 – Also good as rolling gun platform

Things I am hoping for:
– Meet characters from the older series in LS – I love the idea of meeting Niko, Carl, Tommy or Claude again and not just for some passing scene but a whole mission maybe and seeing how they developed after their storyline ended in the previous game? We embodied the characters for a short time, want to see them again for old times sake.
– The other 2 cities from San Andreas later on with possibly more storyline for the main game. Doubtful on more main story addition as the end of a GTA usually comes with a finality

Things I am wondering:
– How would a purchase of an apartment work when you are on your own 16 player server? What if someone bought the same apartment on another server and then joined you on yours? Would you own the same place or would you magically warp to another level on the same apartment. Assuming the outside could see inside (i.e. the kidnap mission from the gameplay trailer). Would there be a problem with dual ownership and locations on the building?
– When you steal a car can you then respray it and then “register” it so you own it properly?
– Would money earned in the SP missions be used in the MP world?
– Does wearing the hat from the collectors edition, while playing the game automatically make you a big baller and does the Playstation Eye/Kinect see that and make you a level 100 badass in the game? (ok maybe not)

remember the company that has been named the worst in America for two years running yea its not Activision its EA has raised a whopping $10.5 million dollars for charity so what is the humble origin bundle? well i’m glad you asked, the humble bundle is a series of collections “bundles” that are digitally distributed and at a price determined by the purchaser. These bundles are typically offered on a two week basis they also offer additional media around mid week that is only available if you pay more then average. Which is a great idea.

EA has decided to give the money earned through the sales directly to charities like: the American Red Cross, Watsi, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, The Human Rights Campaign and the American Cancer Society.

EA has also broken records prior to the Humble Origin Bundle, the previous bundle was the Humble Indie Bundle 5 which raised $5.1 million.

Back when Angry birds first came out it was fun some still find it fun and its multiple versions of the game have added new and interesting ways to essentially kill pigs without getting any bacon which it think is a waste. And its all fun and games until we go to singapore and get spamed with that stuff from the large rocket ship what was in terminal 3 to a angry birds themed kids area it gets old real fast.

but now they have announced that they are making a kart based racer… is there real potential here? or is going to be a mad gimmick designed to once again spam us with more pig killing birds. they announced it thru a video that featured Rovio’s Kalle Kaivola and how the team had a break thru when they saw their Red bull angry birds kart fall apart… god that was a mouth full.

Okay now I see the potential with a franchise devoted on destroying things and maybe some heavy customising could be a great plan maybe a few power ups like ModNation racing.

It may or may not be as cool as i think it will be but lets just hope that they wont fully target the 5-8 age range.

High Moon’s new mind smashing game has gotten a new trailer and Here it is really it looks perfect for Deadpool and therefore it pleases me. Nolan North the voice of such characters as Nathan Drake,Desmond Miles and many others will be Deadpool once again.

Lego Marvel Superheroes

As usual the developers are TT games and Warner Bros. Interactive will be publishing it this time its going to be for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, DS, 3DS, PS Vita and PC and will be coming around september ish.

Now this is like the 13th game in the LEGO franchise and it is very robust but it still finds ways to interest us and it doesn’t seem to be running out of steam and recently we have been able to look at the new and upcoming Lego Marvel Superheroes this game looks like it will be a Ultimate alliance like game utilising one of the biggest line up of heroes to date

Developed by TT Games it will offer the usual action adventure and puzzling we are use to but this time showcasing a character line up taken from the sprawling Marvel universes Nick Fury has brought together superheroes from all places to save Earth from Galactus and loki…… and others.

Visually the figures look the same as the ones that come in the packages and this is not unusual, i hope that they can draw me back into this game series because i haven’t finished one since Lego indiana jones.

Ubisoft says we like Annual Assassin’s creed

Ubisoft Montreal’s CEO Yannis Mallat has hinted at the publisher will be approaching their yearly Assassins creed installments

At GDC Eurogamer asked whether or not Ubisoft might take a break from releasing a new AC title each year Mallat’s answer was “No”

He has explained his answer by saying

“The players will tell us. Right now there are more and more coming into the franchise […]It’s our breakthrough. When you have quality content, the frequency of coming out with the game is not an issue at all.

On the contrary, people expect more and more of that content. So it’s natural to be able to provide that content. The gamers are happy and it’s our job to make them happy.”

And he’s right the Assassins creed games make huge amounts of money in sales so there isn’t much incentive to stop even for a while there are those franchises that burn out because of too many releases: Tony Hawk and Rock Band/Guitar Hero but on the other hand there are games like sad to say Call of Duty this series has been around for ages but people still buy it then there are sport games like madden and NBA 2K they all seem to be doing fine.

So what do you think should the assassins creed series continue as a yearly or should it stop soon?

GTA V box art

Recently Rockstar has shown off the box art for the newest installment and it has come with new screenshots.

The cover shows the three main protagonists Franklin, Michael and Trevor along with them there is a Angry dog, the blonde with the fruity phone, a guy on a jetski, a helicopter dirt bike and an R8 so if the cover is going to indicate game play im going to take so many selfies and upload them to the Facebook equivalent. And drive cars obviously.